Difference between scholarship and non-scholarship schools evident again

It was December, 2001 and Furman had just handed Lehigh its first loss of the season in the second round of what was then the NCAA I-AA playoffs. The score was 34-17 and there was plenty of talk about how the Paladins were bigger, stronger and faster that day than the team The Morning Call was still referring to as the Engineers.

Then head coach Pete Lembo talked about it in his postgame press conference. Actually, he talked a lot about the difference between scholarship and non-scholarship teams in his five years as coach. And now, he's coaching a scholarship program at Elon, which has done quite well since Lembo arrived. I am sure the scholarship opportunity is one of the reasons Elon was attractive to Lembo despite its poor record when he got there.

Fast forward nearly eight years to Saturday night at Villanova Stadium and I was thinking that really nothing's changed since that day in Greenville, S.C.

The team playing Lehigh was bigger, faster and stronger. Lehigh battled hard, but simply wasn't as talented across the board as Villanova. And frankly, not many teams the Wildcats will play this year will match up either.

And it becomes more and more apparent that Lehigh or any Patriot League program will not be able to match up with the Villanovas of the world in the postseason.

Villanova routed league champion Colgate last year 55-28 in the first round of the playoffs and it wasn't really that close. Villanova led 41-7 at halftime.

Villanova has an outstanding program, make no mistake about that. And not every scholarship school is as good as the Wildcats.

But the Patriot League continues to get more and more evidence that if it wants to compete in the playoffs and for national titles, it has to make the move to scholarships.

Not everybody agrees with this, of course. There are plenty of obstacles to overcome, many of them Title IX related. Many also want to keep the league mantra of "academics first, athletics second."

However, if you want to act like the Ivy League, then you should follow through all the way and don't go into the playoffs, which is the Ivy approach.

As it is now, no Patriot League team is going to win a national title and one will be lucky to get to the second round.

The coaches and anybody who cares about playing the best football you can play want scholarships. Of course, they have to be careful what they say because the school presidents still call the shots and sign the checks.

ADs should want it, too, because scholarships might lead to a matchup against a Division I school -- James Madison and Maryland played into overtime on Saturday for example..

Division I teams won't play non-scholarship programs.

But when you get those opportunities, even if you don't win those games you still gain a lot of exposure and money for your school.

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I realize that Lehigh fans are miserable right now. The program has had two 5-6 seasons and sit at 0-2 for the first time since 1982 right now.

But remember, even in what is now thought of as the golden era of Lehigh football under Kevin Higgins and Lembo from 1998-2004, no Brown and White team advanced past the second round and there was some one-sided postseason losses to Furman, Delaware (47-22 in 2000) and Hofstra (27-15 in 1999).

People will still point to Colgate's run to the I-AA title game as to what Patriot League teams can do, but that was 2003. A long time ago. And even that great run ended in a 40-0 loss in the title game to Delaware for the Raiders.

As recruiting has gotten tougher because of the cost for the students and stricter academic standards, the Patriot League hasn't won a playoff game since 2003, going 0-7.

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I don't know how good or bad this Lehigh team is.

They haven't played very well in their first two games, although there were a few encouraging signs against Villanova. They have a lot to prove once the schedule resumes in two weeks.

But I do know I saw some terrific scholarship players on the opposing team each of the past two weeks.

If you were disappointed or surprised by what happened on Saturday night, you shouldn't have been.

The disparity between the scholarship and non-scholarship programs continues to grow.

The good news for Lehigh fans is that they're done with the scholarship portion of their schedule.